Holyrood Episcopal Church is a Protestant Episcopal Church located at 715 West 179th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood in upper

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

History

The church was founded in 1893 by the Rev. William Oliver Embury, who served as chaplain of the nearby House of Refuge for Problem Girls, and was operated by the Episcopal religious order, the

Community of St. Mary The Community of St. Mary (CSM) is an Anglican religious order of nuns with independent houses located in Greenwich (village), New York, Greenwich, New York, Sewanee, Tennessee, Mukwonago, Wisconsin, and also in Malawi and the Philippines. Histor ...

, in what is now Inwood Hill Park at a time when upper Manhattan was an area of country houses located beyond the edge of the city. The congregation's first building, in country gothic style, was designed by R.D. Chandler and erected in 1895 on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

at what is now 181st Street. 1895, a country-style church with a tower designed by R.D. Chandler and built on upper Broadway at what is now 181st Street. The area urbanized rapidly, and in 1910 the congregation began to plan a new, larger

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

building at

Fort Washington Avenue Fort Washington Avenue is a major north-south street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. It runs from Fort Tryon Park to 159th Street, where it intersects with Broadway. It goes past Bennett Park, the highest natural point in ...

and 179th Street. Designed Bannister & Schell, it was ready for occupancy in 1914. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2020 and designated as a

New York City landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

in 2021. The Rev. Gustav Cartensen was rector from 1919 to 1927. He came to Holyrood after his liberal positions on issues such as permitting black children from a nearby "Negro orphan asylum" led to his resignation from the pulpit of Christ Church (Bronx, New York) at the request of members of the vestry. He was then invited to take the pulpit at Holyrood where his "liberal" positions garnered "widespread publicity," according to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In 2017 the church took a humanitarian position when it agreed to grant "

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

" to a Guatemalan refugee scheduled for deportation. The woman is officially regarded as a "fugitive" by

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

References

External links

* {{coord, 40.849439, -73.938425, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Churches completed in 1914 Churches in Manhattan Washington Heights, Manhattan 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Religious organizations established in 1893 Gothic Revival church buildings in New York City 1893 establishments in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan